RESTAURANT REVIEW: ASADO

RATING

*

REVIEW

Located at the Palace Downtown hotel in Dubai, Asado was one of those restaurants that I had not heard of before. When I looked it up, I discovered it was Argentinian, but given that I did not know what constituted Argentinian food, I was excited to find out!

I received an invitation to attend an event at the hotel, which started with a brunch at Asado at 12:30PM. So I headed out from Abu Dhabi with an empty stomach ready to inhale just about everything at the buffet.  

The moment you arrive, you immediately get an authentic vibe as you walk through a stonewall entrance into a darkened hallway leading straight to the restaurant’s glass door. 

And then you find it locked.

I was a little early. Fifteen minutes to be exact. I peered through the door and found a server looking right at me, so I waved at her and tried to do some sort of hand signal that translated to “Can you please let me in?” She in turn signed back, “One moment, please” and walked away. 

I waited for about ten minutes before I allowed myself to start banging on the door, thinking I must have misunderstood her hand signal. She finally walked back with a manager in tow. I knew he was the manager because he was dressed in a fancy suit. His name badge read “Ramesh”.

 Mr. Ramesh let me in, and I told him I was there for the brunch organized by Boutique One. He informed me that the brunch started at 12:30. I looked at the time, it was 12:25 – “Shouldn’t you have the doors open 10 or 15 minutes before an event starts just in case people arrived early?”

“They told us the brunch starts at 12:30.” Mr. Ramesh responded, drily. It was apparent to me that Mr. Ramesh took his job a little too seriously. He did not smile once throughout this interaction. I decided to ignore the attitude and walked into the restaurant to find a seat. He stopped me, “Ma’am, I need your card.” 

Naively, I thought he meant my business card, so I took one out to hand to him, “No ma’am, the lunch coupon.”

“What lunch coupon?” I asked him.
“Your lunch coupon for the brunch.” He said.
“I am here for the Boutique One event.” I reiterated, in case he misheard.
“Yes, you need a lunch coupon.”

I quickly checked the invite I received to make sure I did not miss a fine print saying I needed to pick up a lunch coupon. There was no such thing. I looked at him and said, “We don’t need a lunch coupon.”

“Yes, you do.” He said, “You can’t enter without a lunch coupon.”
“But nobody informed me that I needed a lunch coupon.”
“That’s not my problem.” He flippantly answered.

I raised my eyebrows, surprised at his tone of voice and the way I was being spoken to.

“You shouldn’t speak to customers this way.” I said.

Shrug.

“You are being extremely rude. Can I speak to your manager?”
“I am the manager.”
“I want to speak to the person above you. Who manages you?”
“He’s not here.”
“I want his number.”
“I don’t have it. You can get it from the lobby, along with the lunch coupon.”

I stalked out of the restaurant, fuming, and decided to take it up with the organizer.

More girls were starting to arrive, and we all walked back to Asado together to weather the storm. Only Mr. Ramesh was nowhere to be found, so we walked in with the organizer, who assured us we did not need a lunch coupon and that it was all taken care of.

I sat down and tried to put the whole silly interaction out of my mind, focusing on the food instead! The buffet was quite expansive with a soup and bread station, a salad bar, a mains station and a desserts table. I quickly realized that there was nothing Argentinian about it though, and that was a huge disappointment. It was a buffet like any other buffet and nothing stood out for me – nothing that deserved driving from Abu Dhabi to, anyway. 

The lentil soup was displayed in an authentic brass jug, which I thought was very creative and made for a beautiful setup. It was deliciously thick and creamy, and if you added to it a few squeezes of lemon, you get that wonderful tangy flavor. The salads and appetizers were also good, I did not try everything, but I had a bit of eggplant dip, labneh, olives and shrimp salad. They were good, but I cannot really give them credit for the labneh or the olives, as there was no preparation needed for either of those ingredients.

The mains, on the other hand, were not that great. I had some courgette quiche, beef brisket and egg stir-fried rice. The courgette quiche was very slimy, I could not eat it. The beef brisket lacked flavor and seasoning and the egg stir-fried rice was very dry. 

I left my plate uneaten and went straight to the desserts! That is always my favorite part, and there was such a great variety that I wanted to try everything…but I didn’t. I settled for a mini fruit tart, lemongrass crème brûlée, mango cheesecake, eggless chocolate cake and a warm apple crumble with custard. Sadly, the only thing that I ended up eating was the warm apple crumble. Everything else was mediocre. The warm apple crumble though was mouthwateringly delicious, with the perfect consistency of caramelized apples and crumbly bits. The custard gave it just the right amount of sweetness needed to enhance all the flavors and I would absolutely have it again - if I were to go back, which I am not.

But wait! Mr. Ramesh was back, and he was up to his old tricks again. Several girls were being denied entrance due to this mysterious lunch coupon. The organizer, who was getting frustrated, went to speak to him and told him to let them all in. As he approached our table, I got up to speak to him again, and tried to clear the air. I told him that it seemed we did not need a lunch coupon after all, and so the rudeness was unwarranted, do I get an apology? His response, “No.”

Experiences, good or bad, are almost always associated with interactions you have with people. You could have the best job in the world, but hate it because of the people you work with. You could be traveling to the most exotic location, but end up having a miserable time because of the locals, who are not very friendly to tourists. Alternatively, you could stay at a 2-star or 3-star hotel, but keep going back because of the staff and customer service. You could visit a restaurant with subpar food, but continue going back because of the vibe and the people that the place attracts.

Asado was one of the worst customer service experiences I have had, not because I have not been exposed to rudeness before, but because it felt personally directed at me. It was not that the food arrived late, or that the waiters were inattentive or that the general service lacked. It was about a man standing in front of a woman, being blatantly rude to her, for absolutely no reason. It was the look on his face as he looked down at me, the tone of his voice and the words he used.

I wanted to check if I was the only one who has had this sort of experience there, and with a bit of online research found that many people have been treated quite the same way by the staff, and that it was even worse when it becomes crowded and busy!

I do not understand who trains the staff or who made these individuals managers, but the attitude was incredible. They had zero people skills - they were rude, arrogant, and extremely disrespectful. They refused to apologize, refused to back down, and refused to make me, an unhappy customer, feel better.

It is sad that I was excited to visit Asado, only to have my appetite squashed and my entire experience ruined by an arrogant fool.